Monday, October 29, 2012

Water scarcity hits Zimbabwe's elephants

Zimbabwe
is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa, between the
Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the
south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and
Mozambique to the east.

Eastern Zimbabwe is mostly mountainous but
about 20% of the nation consists of wide open rural areas. Victoria
Falls, one of the world's biggest and most spectacular waterfalls, is
located in the country's northwest as part of the Zambezi river. The
country has a moderated tropical climate with a rainy season usually
from late October to March. Because of the geography of the region,
Zimbabwe is mostly savanna except for the east where moist and
mountainous environment supports tropical evergreen and hardwood
forests. More than 350 species of mammals can be found in Zimbabwe
including the "Big Five:" elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo
and the endangered rhinoceros.

Hwange
National Park (formerly Wankie Game Reserve) is the largest game
reserve in Zimbabwe. This park located on the main road between
Zimbabwe's second largest city Bulawayo and the famous Victoria
Falls. This park established in 1949 is 14,600-square Kilometers
game reserve noted for its big five animals: elephant, lion,
leopard, buffalo and the endangered rhinoceros. The reserve is now
home to between 35,000 to 40,000 elephants. According to park
officials this number is twice its capacity.

This
elephant population explosion has created a much higher demand for
water in the park. To satisfy the thirst of the booming elephant
population, wildlife authorities of Zimbabwe have now installed 45
numbers of diesel engine operated pumps to pump water from boreholes
at various points in the game reserve to fill the water holes located
in the deep interiors of the game reserve. These pumps run
continuously to ensure a steady supply of water for animals in the
arid Hwange National Park. Each of these pumps is consuming about 200
liters of diesel every week since June 2012, just to ensure that
the animals can get enough drinking water. The pumps would have to
run till November, when the rains would arrive. An ecologist with the
Zimbabwe ational Parks and Wildlife Authority, says that "The
elephants drink close to 90 percent of all the water [pumped] here."
He has also noted something very interesting, which throws light on
the intelligence of these giant animals. He says "I think
elephants now know that when they hear an engine running, chances are
that there is water close by."

This
plan of providing water for the animals in the park, appears to have
produced desired results, as number of elephant deaths due to extreme
heat and lack of water has gone down to 17 from last year's 77. Many
environmentalists however do not agree with this artificial watering
policy. They feel that the nature should be allowed to take its own
course, which would also control the elephant population to a number
best suited to the capacity of the park.

The
boom in elephant population has created a bad impact on the foliage
in the game reserve. Vegetation has been affected negatively The
trees are not growing as fast as they should. They are producing less
number of seeds. Since elephants strip tree barks and dig roots for
food, the quality of forage (Plant leaves and stems) has gone down.
According to the ecologists, the entire ecological system of African
Savanna depends upon a delicate balancing between number of tall
trees and the grasslands. If there are more grasslands and less
number of tall trees, many small animals and insects who live in the
trees risk extinction.

In
spite of what ecologists feel, there is a very little chance of
booming elephant population going sown in near future. Zimbabwe's
economy needs tourism to grow rapidly in the country. During
political turmoil of last few decades, tourists mostly shunned the
country over the years. They have however started returning slowly
and for the tourists, Zimbabwe's elephants remains the main
attraction. Any idea of culling the animals to maintain ecological
balance in the savanna is a non starter.

Wildlife
authorities are now looking for methods that would bring down teeming
population of elephants to reasonable level without culling as a
option.